OT: Battery explosion

Bill · 2008-11-02T05:05:51+00:00

This is OT, but the expertise in this group is amazing & I need somehelp understanding why I had a battery explode. I'm guessing I may haveput too much load on the battery in too short a time -- and too muchinternal pressure built up. But I'm not sure - and I know I don't wantto repeat what happened today.This happened with my 28 hp compact diesel tractor. Ran out of dieseland got a lot of air in the fuel lines. I had been cranking the enginemore than would be normal because the engine would start, run a fewmoments then starve for fuel. I'm guessing I had cranked the engine formaybe 15 seconds at time. I wasn't paying a lot of attention - Iprobably had cranked the engine that way at least six times (maybemore), and was loosening the fuel lines at the injectors trying to bleedmore of the air -- when BLAM! It was major -- most of the top of thecase & parts of the sides of the battery were blown off with enoughforce to dent the air cleaner that's about a foot above the battery. I'm well aware that sparks can easily set off a hydrogen explosion; butI don't think there were any sparks. Could cranking the engine that much create enough pressure to cause thebattery to blow up? Would a lot of cranking cause the battery tooverheat & explode? This was a New Holland 12V lead-acid batery,barely a year old. I had noticed that the caps did not seem to ventpressure well; but never thought it would just blow like it did. Is there any other sort of malfunction that could cause a battery toblow? Thanks for any insight. Bill

Nov 02, 2008 23 Replies

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Bill 18 years ago

To anyone who might still be interested to the battery mishap I reported.

The tractor is 22+ years old and some things are showing their age. Thus far I've found a corroded/broken wire in the regulator/charging circuit (between the alternator & voltage regulator) that had to be a pre-existing problem. I don't know enough about operation of that circuit to know if an open circuit on that lead would cause chronic overcharging of the battery-- but the circuit certainly could not function as intended with a broken path.

I've got to fix that wire, and run some more checks shown in the manual then I'll try putting the new battery in and see if the voltage at the battery stays below 14.8V listed in the manual. I could still have a bad voltage regulator, or other bad electrical connections.

Bill

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Robert Swinney 18 years ago

Leo,

I thought all you denizens of the North knew about bootstrapping - Shorting across the terminals of a "dead", very cold battery. Enough current will flow to heat the battery up to condition sufficient to operate almost normally. Maybe get you started anyway. I've never tried it myself.

"Robert Swinney" wrote: (clip) In all likelyhood, most of those giving adivce in this thread never heard of bootstrapping a

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ So. aren't you going to tell us what it is? I assume it's not carrying the battery by a strap. Is it, by any chance, shorting the battery to warm it up? Or maybe it's trying to charge a battery from itself?

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dan 18 years ago

What's that Lassie? You say that Bill Noble fell down the old rec.crafts.metalworking mine and will die if we don't mount a rescue by Sun, 2 Nov 2008 09:00:39 -0800:

I'd like to add that special attention needs to be paid to the eyes and mouth. "Wet" tissue will be affected quicker and more severely. Start with gentle flow from a hose to first flush off any large amount of acid and debris, then flush the eyes(and mouth if needed) for a long time. Time is of the essence with the eyes. Use force with a reluctant victim if necessary.

I should be blind in one eye. I got hot LYE in one of my eyes. But I was lucky to be near a hose, and could still see with my other eye to get to it. Took me about three seconds to start flushing. Seamed like hours. Stayed there for at least 10 min.

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David Lesher 17 years ago

I can't see a battery exploding from pressure buildup at discharge. A L-A battery creates H gas while charging, not discharging.

Batteries DO blow up when being jump-started for several reasons. First, a spark midst H being vented by the recharging battery. [That's why you always *disconnect* the first cable back at the jumping, not jumped, car..]

The second reason is if the battery is dry/frozen. If frozen, you're boiling the water/acid under the ice. If totally dry, the internal resistance is likely very high and nothing bad happens. But if almost dry, the remaining water/acid may boil....

I suspect the OP's battery had a bad intercell connector. The high heat from repeated cranking could have boiled that cell.

If you saved the pieces, tell the seller and the CPSC; it wouldn't be the first time there was a safety issue found in the field.

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